I never have, but I’m sure you could, given a good cambium match on at least one side. I wouldn’t want a great disparity.
In that case you might consider budding or chipping instead.
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Are you asking if you can graft a large scion to a smaller rootstock or limb?
limb
I have a one year old Golden Delicious. For the life of me I’m not sure why I planted a Golden Delicious. I have several scions ordered and was wondering if I could turn several of the GD branches into something else. The branches are the size of pencils, there about.
Same size or smaller scions work.
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GD is one of my family’s favorite apple out of all my apples I grow. They love the sweetness of it. But of course you can graft any type of apple you want onto your GD and turn it into something else. I’d encourage you to at least leave one branch GD. That’s what I have done, though my tree was not a GD.
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I’m not against GD, but I go on this forum and get all excited about things I’ve never tried, then winter comes and I have nothing to do but think about doing these things. Then I buy too many scions. Oh well, I’ll give it a try.
We always pick a bag of GD from the local orchard, good for some pies.
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Yes…! That’s the stuff I like. People can graft using anything, so I’m not trying to be snobbish here with my recs. I’ve even used plastic bread sacks cut into strips as well as Glad wrap, when I first started because I heard some people using it. Big nurseries use budding rubbers, so there isn’t a magic formula.
But, imo, you have the primo stuff there. I like the feel, the stretchy-ness, everything, it’s just lovely. You do have to cut it lengthways for ease of use for most grafting/budding. It takes a little extra time, but not much.
I just cut it lengthways on the roll, as needed in the field, with a knife (sometimes with my grafting knife). The rolls are 3/4" wide and when you go around them lengthways in the middle with a knife, the strips to tear off are 3/8" wide.
I rip the protective plastic off and pre-stretch it just like parafilm. Goes on like it was made for it.
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Buddy tape is the best, NOTHING ELSE even comes close!
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Ha! Glad I read this again! I thought you said GD was “good for some pigs.”
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I think it’s time for one of you ‘pros’ to make a grafting video and post it on the forum! I would love to see how this is done . . . 'Have a hard time following all the questions, because I know so little about grafting.
My husband just piped in . . . (is he allowed to offer a suggestion even tho he is not a member? LOL) His Ft. Lauderdale, Florida grandma used to take a young branch of one of her citrus trees and wrap it with sphagnum moss . . . while still attached to the living tree. She would keep the moss damp . . . and Wah Lah! Roots would form under the moss. Then she would cut the branch, with the roots, and plant it.
I don’t know how this would affect the ‘new tree’, being that it would not have the stronger root stock that it probably should. ?
Buddy tape is worth the money. I get almost 100% takes with it. A roll lasted me for about 5 years.
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https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Kuffel+Creek+Apple+Nursery
Just a couple for starters- I left out great stuff by others here and will admit to losing track and leaving good work out. So here’s an appetizer for you!
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Pom,
Believe it or not, there is actually a name for that (air layering). Most people don’t do it with sphagnum moss anymore, but the concept hasn’t changed. You can search the forum under the term “air layering” to read about some of the techniques.
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And I’ll just bet that yours are NOT the mealy things they sell in the supermarkets!
I buy one Golden Delicious each winter, hoping it will be like the GDs that we could buy years ago. But, I am always disappointed. (I can’t believe that anyone actually buys them! At least not more than once!)
Yesterday - I tried an Envy. Big. Beautiful. Hard. Promised to be super. The texture was great. Really crisp. But, the taste left a lot to be desired. Kinda ‘nothin’.
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WOW! Thanks! I’m so glad to see this. I was hoping maybe someone already had made one.
These pics are great. I’ll go back and take a more focused look, when I have the time. I don’t think I have any, yet, that I want to graft . . . but it is something to work towards.
I have a very basic question.
What is the difference between a scion and any other ‘branch’ used for propagation?
Is it that a scion is a branch that is not a sucker or a water sprout? I looked the word up in a dictionary and it did not specify.
While we’re throwing out ‘alternatives’, I have a friend who recounted following her grandfather grafting apples back in the last century… he would bind the graft union with cotton string, then slather the union and scion with a healthy covering of slightly-thicker-than-soupy cow manure, fresh from one of the farm’s dairy cows. Anyone who’s stepped in a cowpie knows that they usually sort of get a dry, protective crust… but are still moist underneath for quite some time.
I suspect that the cow manure helped seal in moisture…and probably there were some antifungal properties, as well. And… apples/pears callus in pretty rapidly.
I’ve wrapped Parafilm over or under my budding rubbers… doesn’t make much difference which order you do it in. I used to purchase red budding/grafting rubbers, but after Mellingers went out of business, I couldn’t find them affordably, and just switched to the widest office-supply store rubber bands I could find. They work just fine, and do degrade pretty quickly with UV exposure.
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I use the word “scion” for the piece I’m stealing from one source to place elsewhere. Any branch or stick that will succeed is good, and water sprouts and suckers make good scions.
As a rule good scions are from last year’s growth, are roughly the diameter of a pencil, have well-defined dormant buds that are nicely spaced, i.e., not too close to one another, and which have not been allowed to dry out.
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The last roll of budding tape I bought was from Peach Tree Orchard Supply. Not expensive at all.